Sustainable bacterial cellulose production by low cost feedstock: evaluation of apple and tea by-products as alternative sources of nutrients

Abstract

The high applicability of Bacterial Cellulose (BC) is often challenging due to its high production costs, which ultimately prevents its widespread use. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate BC production using alternative feedstock to replace high-cost synthetic carbon and nitrogen sources and to evaluate the physical and structural properties of the produced BC membranes. BC was produced through a microbial consortium from kombucha, and the formulated alternative media sustained promising BC production, especially the association of apple wastes (at 10% (W/V)) with tea mixture, with a yield similar to BC produced on Hestrin–Schramm (HS) control media. Moreover, the BC samples produced in this alternative media also exhibited comparable properties to BC from HS media, with similar water-holding capacity and retention ability, thermal stability, mechanical behavior, and a crystallinity index of 87.61% and 88.08%, respectively. Thus, our findings substantiated that expensive substrates, such as glucose, peptone, and yeast extract, could be successfully replaced by apple wastes, black and green tea, for BC production while maintaining its remarkable physical and structural properties. Furthermore, besides the low-cost advantage, the bioconversion of apple waste also reduces the environmental burden caused by its disposal in landfills.

Simultaneous Production of Cellulose Nitrates and Bacterial Cellulose from Lignocellulose of Energy Crop

“…A BC yield of 10% is not considered low. For example, when using Kombucha Original Bio as a producer, the BC yield in the synthetic nutrient medium (control) and in apple waste nutrient medium was 1% and 4%, respectively [44], which is 10 to 11 times lower than the BC yield obtained in our study on the hydrolyzates. BC yields ranging from 9.6% to 11.1% highlight the advantage of Medusomyces gisevii Sa-12 over individual strains that can yield BCs at only 2.2-6.5% [36,[91][92][93].…”

“…The width of the microfibrils for the BC samples synthesized on enzymatic hydrolyzates C8 and C24 ranged from 24.0 nm to 186.0 nm, with an average width of 65.0 nm for C8 and 81.0 nm for C24, indicating values close to the control. The width of microfibrils in BC samples can depend on the nature of the producer or the composition of the nutrient medium [ 44 , 96 ]. Therefore, in our case, the nutrient medium composition does not have a significant influence on this characteristic.…”

“…The studies on BC as a precursor of CNs are associated with excellent and unique nanoscale properties [ 30 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 ], with hydrolyzates from pretreated lignocellulose being examined as the nutrient medium [ 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 ]. There are examples of hydrolyzates derived from Miscanthus [ 32 , 45 ].…”

Biosynthesis of Bacterial Nanocellulose from Low-Cost Cellulosic Feedstocks: Effect of Microbial Producer

“…The issue of whether to use individual strains or a symbiotic culture for the biosynthesis of BNC has become particularly acute in the literature worldwide over the last five years [ 37 , 38 , 39 ]. The use of individual strains has a range of undisputed advantages: it not only offers high productivity with respect to the target product (BNC) and prospects for a further productivity enhancement via gene engineering techniques, but also the predictability of metabolism and the possibility of controlling the population count and condition [ 13 , 18 , 40 ].…”

Targeting Bacterial Nanocellulose Properties through Tailored Downstream Techniques

“…Despite the numerous benefits of BNC, its production still faces challenges in terms of cost-efficiency, related mainly to the high cost of the production media (around 30% of total cost) [ 6 , 7 ]. Current research efforts are focused on developing more efficient strains, optimizing cost-effective feedstock media, and streamlining downstream processes [ 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 ].…”